Double Speed
by Triscribe
Summary: Sequel to Crossed Connections. Six months after the North Pole tragedy, several heroes find themselves swept away by a blast of orange light into a landscape of swirling mists. Things get weird when they meet others from across the dimensional barrier, and worse when it turns out something evil is lurking in the darkness... Now featuring both the normal and altered Team and League.
1. Teaser Prologue

_Six months after the North Pole..._

He couldn't remember not running. It felt like that's all he'd ever done, though in the back of his mind a tiny voice said there had once been other things. The memories were all blank, however. Hard as he tried, the picture frames remained empty, so eventually he just focused on the running.

At some point, he wasn't sure when, there was another figure running beside him. Maybe she'd always been there, and he just hadn't noticed. She was wearing a costume like his, bright red and yellow material that flexed with every movement. A long, thin braid whipped out behind her, as opposed to his own short-cut hair that was barely ruffled. They matched each other, step for step, breath for breath, always running. The crackling energies around them resonated with each footfall.

And then, something else was there, something new. A darkness that definitely didn't belong, trying to consume the energy that the pair ran through, ran on, ran with. This wasn't something they could allow - the energy had a purpose, had others it was needed for. These two would _not _let it be eaten.

She flashed him a tired grin, which he managed to return, as they ran off to combat the dark entity.

-DS-

"Ready?" Bruce asked, slipping on his cowl. Tim nodded, placing the domino mask upon his face and moving towards the zeta tube at the back of the Batcave. There was a meeting called on the Watchtower to pool all information about the movements of the remnants of Vandal Savage and the Light, and every Leaguer and Team member would be in attendance.

Batman and Robin stepped up to the teleporter, pausing just long enough to enter the correct password. _Recognized, Bat*fsshk*bin B*krshk*-_

"What the-" Robin started to say, before a burst of orange light, which was certainly _not_ the zeta beam, washed over him and Batman.

When the teen next opened his eyes, the bottom of his stomach dropped away in worry.

They weren't in the Cave.

They weren't at the Watchtower.

For as far as he could see, there was only an expanse of hazy grey mist with occasional bursts of orange static. The ground beneath his feet seemed solid, but made up of denser gatherings of the same material. Turning to ask Batman if he knew where they were, Robin got another shock.

His mentor was gone as well.


	2. Chapter 1

Batman growled, turning in a full circle, trying to spot Robin in all the blasted mist. This wasn't the first time he'd been caught in a blast of zeta beams that took him somewhere other than planned, but it was always to another platform location. Being dropped here, with no sign of teleporter technology or the teen who'd been standing beside him, was very concerning.

Deciding to risk movement, Batman began walking forward, trying to ensure his feet didn't shift from a straight line. He wasn't quite willing to call out with no idea what manner of people of beings might be around, but the crimefighter kept his eyes scanning in every direction.

So the sudden appearance of a dark shape in the mists to his left was impossible to miss. Holding position, and slipping a batarang from his belt, Batman took a cautious step forward. The figure didn't move, prompting him to shift forward again.

Then he was forced to duck as a projectile came whistling through the air. Without a second's hesitation, Batman threw his own weapon. The figure in the mists also dodged, rolling forward to where he could get a clear look.

The two people in Bat uniforms froze to stare at each other.

-DS-

Cursing under his breath, Robin continued to march through the mists, flicking his eyes back and forth, scouring the never-ending landscape for any sign of his mentor. His worry growing every minute, the teen nearly walked straight into someone who was standing in a particularly thick patch of mist.

"Hey- What the?" A female voice gasped, and as he took a step back, Robin's eyes grew wide.

"Who are you?!" The two asked each other in sync, taking in the nearly identical costumes. Not bothering to wait for an answer, Robin swiftly pulled out his bo staff, extending the weapon to full length and dropping into a battle stance. The girl did the same, mirroring his actions exactly.

Feeling extremely cautious, he went for a few initial swipes, only for them to be expertly parried. Then Robin found himself driven back by a sudden rush from the other teen, her own staff launching rapid strikes aimed for his head, knees, and midsection. Barely managing to deflect a hit that would have had him yelping a few octaves higher than usual, the boy spun, slipping his staff in between his opponent's arms. A twist and jerk too sudden for her to avoid, and the girl's weapon went flying. Robin didn't have any time to congratulate himself, though, because the teen launched herself at him.

The two tumbled through the misty expanse, exchanging blows at a lightning pace, neither able to get the upper hand. And then, without warning, each found a grappling cord tightening around their upper bodies, pulling the pair of teens away from each other.

"Enough, both of you!" A familiar voice called out in anger.

-DS-

Nightwing groaned, struggling to blink his eyes open, an action that seemed much more difficult than usual. There was something wrapped tightly around his chest, keeping the hero's arms firmly behind his back and making it hard to breathe.

Finally getting his eyelids open enough to see, the first thing Nightwing noticed was the light. It was very a very bright orange, and crackled powerfully; just looking at the stuff in his peripheral vision gave the young man a slight drumming in his skull. Glancing away from the direction the light lay in, he noted the dull, grey mists that stretched off as far as he could see.

Then something brown caught his gaze, causing Nightwing to crane his neck upwards. Just above him and to the left was Aqualad, bound with some oozing black tendrils in the same manner as the human hero himself. But beside Kaldur...

Secured beside Nightwing's old friend was another Atlantean with dark brown skin, blue pants and a red shirt, her white hair pulled back into a frazzled bun. Both were limp, their eyes closed.

Trying not to panic, Nightwing turned his head as far as he could in all directions.

Also above him were Superboy and Miss Martian, similar people with the opposite genders bound beside them as well. Over his shoulder, Nightwing was able to spy Zatanna next to another man in a stage magician's outfit, and a little beyond them were two orange and black clad shapes, one of which could have been Tigress. Turning to his right as he searched for anyone else, the hero's eyes widened as he took in the sight of three more people.

Several feet away hung Rocket, along with a man with the same costume and hairstyle. Immediately beside Nightwing, though, was a young woman in a replica of his own uniform - who was watching him with half-lidded eyes.

"Hi there." She said quietly. "You'd be Grayson, right?"

He sucked in a breath as understanding finally sank in. "Yeah. You're Graydottir?" Nodding, the other Nightwing offered him a wry smile.

"Nice to finally meet the guy who's been sharing my worst experiences for over five years now."

"Right back at you." He tried to twist in his mysterious bindings to be able to face her more comfortably, but the tendrils tightened their grip even more, forcing Nightwing to cease struggling before his ribs were crushed.

"Not a very asterous place for it to happen in, though." He finally was able to gasp out.

She snorted a laugh at him. "No kidding. Any idea what's going on?" Nightwing was forced to shake his head, and the other hero sighed, straining once against her own bonds.

"That's what I was afraid of."


	3. Chapter 2

"Dixie still has that cape you sent her home in at the back of her closet."

"Same with Dick and yours." Batman responded, the shadow of a fond smile briefly crossing his face. "I think he still pulls it out sometimes, when the nightmares come."

Batwoman nodded. "Same with her. Never thought I'd be able to get used to _not _having that scrawny girl come poking her head in my bedroom door when she couldn't sleep." He hummed a brief agreement.

The two heroes were still walking through the grey mists, keeping their eyes peeled for any sign of their missing partners, but somehow, able to make light conversation while doing so. That wasn't something either of them was used to doing, and if any others had been around to hear the pair of Bats, they'd have been very surprised. However, to the Gotham heroes, talking to each other was even easier than having a discussion with Alfred. It just... Came naturally.

And since they were alternate versions of each other, neither was really surprised by it.

Still, the quiet words they exchanged were halted the instant new noises made their way out of the mists. Straining his ears, Batman could just make out the faint sound of words - an argument, actually.

"_...Can't believe you morons would start fighting with barely a word!"_

"_Don't you know better, when stuck in a strange place without any idea how we got here?"_

"_Not our fault!"_

"_Nightwing never told me that story anyway, so how was I to know about her?"_

The pair of Bats quickened their steps, finally breaking through a mist bank and coming upon an odd sight.

Two slim teens, each in a Robin uniform, were being grudgingly released from tangled grappling lines by a pair of red-haired young adults. It was the younger girl who first noticed their arrival, her face lighting up with delighted recognition.

"Batwoman! Thank god." She cried in relief, before shifting to annoyance. "Batlad's being a jerk." Said crimefighter paused in his yanking off of the cable to gently whack the back of the girl's head.

The other Robin had opened his mouth to say something similar, but Batgirl's glare stopped him cold. Her attention turned, though, as Batman swept closer and placed a hand on either of their shoulders.

"Are you both alright?" He asked gruffly, aware that behind him, Batwoman was saying much the same thing.

"We're fine," Batgirl assured him, though Robin muttered something under his breath about _just a little bruised._ The adult helped in pulling away the last of the grappling line before asking what happened to incur such a thing.

"These two morons were fighting, and didn't hear us yelling at them to stop." The young woman answered simply, ignoring the teen's scowl.

"Maybe we ought to get their hearing checked." Batlad suggested, chuckling even as he ran an exasperated hand through his red hair. His alternate grinned as well, her gaze now shifting to take in the other Bat.

"Wow. She really does look like Selina." Blinking, Batman turned his head and realized with a start that the young woman was right. He'd been so startled before, and then focusing on finding Robin, that the similarities hadn't had time to jump out at him as they now did.

Batwoman's uniform was nearly identical to his in design, though obviously with a few format differences. And it was in those different curves that she closely resembled the Catwoman that he was used to dealing with.

Both of the other younger heroes were looking at him with scrutiny identical to Batgirl and Robin in their studying of the female Bat.

"Same for him and Cedric." Batlad noted. "Bet you tend to take the more hands-on approach in clobbering people, though, rather than spinning around."

"Sounds about right." Robin said, still rubbing a spot on his side. "So, unless the two of you were going through a zeta tube like us, I don't think this is a teleporter malfunction."

"We were on the Watchtower." Narrowing her eyes, Batgirl glared at the mist-covered ground. "With the Team and half the League."

"And that begs the question - are they all here too?"

-DS-

"You have _got _to be kidding me." Red Arrow snarled. The woman wearing his costume crossed her arms and glowered back.

"If you think I'm any happier about this than you, you're going to find that bow in a very unpleasant place, very soon." She warned.

Not far away, the two Green Arrows were arguing with each other, even as the pair of exasperated Black Canaries were shaking their heads.

"If they don't start behaving, I'm for knocking all of them unconscious." David Lance muttered under his breath, and Dinah had to agree with him. So far, Ollie, Olivia, Roy and Reyna had shown no signs of cooperation, and the only reasonable-minded heroes present were getting tired of it.

Before either Canary could intervene, though, a new voice cut through the arguing.

"Well, well, well. Why doesn't this surprise me at all?" Emerging from the mists were a pair of figures in green and black and wearing grinning cat masks.

"Cheshire," Everyone groaned: the Red Arrows in annoyance, the Green in disbelief, and the two Back Canaries in an acceptance that things were just about to get worse.

_A/N: You all should really count yourselves lucky - I was having a hard time writing this chapter, and if it hadn't been for my friend Aisling Moon providing me a place to rant about difficult scenes, I never would have noticed I forgot to include Babs and Brandon in the story. And just like that, bringing them had the words flowing beautifully._

_Next update might not come 'til the end of this school week, so just bear with me, folks. We'll start getting to the good stuff soon enough. And let me know if there's a particular person you really want to see the scene of them meeting their alternate, I'll see about making it happen. /Sly grin_

_-Triscribe_


	4. Chapter 3

"I'm seriously tempted to kill whoever's done this." Apollo growled, twisting in his bindings. Beside him, Artemis was mirroring his motions, straining until the tendrils constricted enough to force both of them to cease struggling. By now, all of the imprisoned heroes had woken up and were trying to put their heads together to figure out what to do.

"I'd be satisfied with giving them a taste of their own medicine." Superboy muttered. "This stuff acts like an inhibitor collar."

"Can we even tell what this stuff _is?"_ Raquel grimaced. "I feel like we're dangling from the tentacles of some giant octopus." Beside her, Rick's eyes travelled up the length of the tendrils holding him, at least, as far as he could before they vanished into the grey mists.

"Feels more like that stuff spider webs are made out of, to me anyway." He muttered, frown deepening.

"Slirdnet, esaeler!" Both Zatanna and Zetenni yelled in unison, to no avail.

"Oh, if these things ruin my outfit, I'm going to give their owner a severe taste of their own medicine." The male magician snapped when the spell did nothing. Zatanna bit out her own agreement while the other heroes rolled their eyes.

"Well, in the absence of being able to get out, how about we try to figure out why we're here to begin with?" Dixie suggested.

"For example," the other Nightwing continued. "Why the fourteen of us? I was in my warehouse when that explosion hit, but the rest of you should have already gotten to the Watchtower, with plenty of other heroes around. So why just take us?"

"We're the remaining members of the early days of the Team." Mr'gann offered, his gaze flickering to Tiger and Tigress, both of whom went notably silent.

"More likely, we are the heroes who have crossed the dimensional barrier in the past." Kaldur mused. Aqualass nodded next to him.

"None of the other members of the Team or League have, which could be why this phenomena affected us and not them."

"Phenomena?" Artemis glared at them. "Somebody's _kidnapped _us. Maybe it's got to do with are being the only ones left who've gone between worlds-"

_**No.**_

All of them went still and quiet as the otherworldly voice quivered out from the tendrils.

_**You are the closest, and the ones reachable. Others, out of reach - you will have to do.**_

"Oh, and that's not creepy at all." Supergirl huffed. "Who are you, and what do you want?"

_**To eat. To grow. To not have THEM disrupting.**_ All the heroes picked up on the extra vehemence in this last phrase.

Dick took a deep breath and lifted his head. "If it's help you're seeking, there are better ways to go about it than snatching us-"

_**No. Not help. **_The tendrils all tightened briefly, squeezing the air from their captives' lungs. _**Bait.**_

-DS-

They had both felt it at the same moment. The thing, the dark entity that was trying to devour their energy, had broken the rules and reached out. They reacted instinctively, grabbing those the being had ignored, desperately trying to get some extra help for those that it had taken prisoner.

If the Consumer was going to kidnap their closest friends, Wally and Willow West were going to level the playing field.

-DS-

"... Then maybe you can quit sticking your nose into hero business!"

"Maybe you could try to do your 'business' more efficiently then, and we wouldn't have to get involved."

"Maybe you can just go jump in a swamp-"

"Maybe we can all quit arguing with each other and try to figure out what on earth is _GOING ON?" _The various archers and assassins quieted at the undisguised anger both Canaries were finally displaying.

"I've had it with your posturing." David glowered at them, Dinah right behind him.

"If you six can't get along while we're trapped in an unknown location, then we're going to have to resort to screaming down all your ears." Red and Green Arrows visibly flinched, though the two Cheshires did little more than frown, their masks having been taken off several minutes of arguing ago.

"Who said anything about trapped?" Jade scoffed, regaining her confidence. "This place goes on for miles, easily."

"We had to have passed at least a dozen of your fellow goody-two-shoes before we found you lot." Jaden muttered as well. The heroes all blinked at him.

"Where?!" Olivia finally demanded. Neither assassin did more than shrug.

"Oh, just back thataways a bit."

"And you didn't think to mention this before?" Roy sighed, his frustration ebbing away to mere annoyance. He'd gone almost two days without sleep, working a case, and this was not helping either his exhaustion or developing headache. As if sensing this, Jade didn't say anything to rib him. Instead, once the older heroes had begun walking in the direction indicated, she slipped up to Roy's side and cautiously offered him a shoulder to lean on.

"Thanks," He whispered, the word repeated a moment later by Reyna as Jaden gave her the same support. "Scale of one to ten, how worried are you really?"

She waited a few moments before replying. "About this situation? Less than six. We've gotten out of worse, after all."

"But...?"

"I'm more concerned about Lian." Jade admitted. "I don't know why the two of us got swept up along with all of you do-gooders, but I'd rather not think about what could happen to her, if whatever did this is aware of her existence." Roy quietly swore beside her, also repeated by Reyna.

"You left him with your dad, right?" The female archer asked, and Jaden nodded mutely. "Okay. No reason anyone to bother an aging man like him."

"Li should be fine." Jaden muttered, pressing his lips to her hair for a brief moment. "As long as he stays back home."

Any further discussions the married couple may have held were cut off by nearby shouting. Reyna and Roy each stiffened and returned to standing solely on their own feet, just in time for two martians, two Kryptonians, and four Amazons to come hurrying out of the mists.

"This just keeps getting more and more interesting, doesn't it?" Jade said, and Roy could detect to equal parts amusement and annoyance in her voice. He just gave a brief nod, resigning himself to being glared at by plenty of old friends.

Then he frowned.

"Hey, shouldn't there be some more clones and aliens here?"


	5. Chapter 4

If there had been a strong enough wall of stone or metal nearby, Superman would have banged his head against it.

Repeatedly.

Not only had the Man of Steel been separated from the other heroes on the Watchtower, he'd managed to lose his little clone-brother, as well. The only upside was that, at Red Arrow's question, Superwoman looked as startled and ashamed as he himself did.

Both of them had attempted earlier to listen for the sounds of other people through the grey mists, but with no luck. Their initial assumption had been that they were alone in the strange landscape - at least, until the two martians nearly flew straight into them (telepathic searches couldn't extend much further than super hearing, it seemed). Then they had come across the four Amazons, two male and two female, all of whom had seemed ready to tear their alternate's throat out.

Diana and Cassie with full on glares were bad enough. Putting them next to the newly introduced Dione and Cal with matching expressions was almost on the same level of intimidating as the Bats.

Fortunately, the combined group of eight powerhouses had managed to avoid punching any of the others, which had Superman starting to relax a bit. And then the hand of fate had decided to slap him upside the head.

"How likely is it that they're somewhere in the blasted mist as well, just waiting for us to find them?" He'd actually muttered aloud at one point. Superwoman glanced over at him.

"Considering Wonder Boy and Girl met up almost immediately with their mentors? And," the female Kryptonian's frown deepened even more. "With the added fact that Mar'gann, Apollo and their alternates are missing as well, I'd say we've suffered from selective separation."

"Does that mean that whatever or whoever's responsible for this is trying to keep the older Team members away from us?" It was Roy who said it, but both Red Arrows were wearing the same worried expression.

"I'd say it's a good bet!" Suddenly, there were more brightly costumed people hurrying out of a mist bank and heading towards the group.

Superwoman blinked as an irritated looking Flash halted beside them, a confused Kid Flash right behind her. Neither of the speedsters had look this serious in a long while... Which was doubled by the male versions of both heroes joining them.

For the sake of avoiding confusion, the four newcomers asked to be addressed as Betty, Barry, Brett and Bart. Black Canary opened her mouth to warn against using their secret identities, but the male Flash cut her off.

"There won't be anyone here other than League and Team members." He explained quickly. "This place isn't on Earth - technically, it isn't a place at all. We've been brought into the Speed Force."

Shocked silence reigned for a few moments.

J'ann was the one to eventually break it. "I was under the impression, from your own description, that the Speed Force was a concentrated yet infinite gathering of energy spanning time and space. This," The martian gestured to the grey and lifeless expanse around them. "Hardly seems to fit any of those details."

"Because this is a pocket of the Force that's been drained dry." Betty jumped in. "Something's absorbed the energy that _should_ be here, hence why the four of us are still operating at normal parameters."

"If we were to make contact with the still energized part of the Speed Force, we'd be moving at about ten times our usual pace." Continued Barry.

"So... Is it your fault we're all here?" Jaden asked after a moment.

"No!" Both Bart and Brett protested simultaneously. "It was... Someone else." The girl finished softly.

"Someone who you all think is also keeping some members of the Team from us?" Ollie questioned.

"No, there's two things out here - maybe three, but the contact was so brief we didn't have time to get more than a quick glance." Frustrated, Barry started pacing a circle around the group as he explained, and it wasn't long before Betty joined him.

"When we were waiting on the Watchtower, there wasn't one burst of Speed Force energy than caught and surrounded all of the heroes, but two. The first one seemed to brush over most of us, but only focused on certain people-"

"-Supergirl, Martian Junior, Tiger, Aqualass, Rocket, Zetenni, and probably Nightwing too, even though she wasn't up there with us-"

"-Along with those same guys from our universe, but then the second blast came in so quickly after the first and grabbed the rest of us, it was hard to tell what had happened-"

"-At least before we met up and compared notes, which leads us to a hard conclusion." Both the scarlet speedsters stopped in their tracks and stared sadly at the rest of the heroes, who'd been doing well to absorb the sudden influx of words.

"What conclusion?" Wonder Woman eventually asked what everyone was wondering. Barry and Betty exchanged a glance, but the two younger speedsters beat them to the punch.

"Wally's alive!" Bart exclaimed at the same time Brett yelled: "Willow's alive!"

_Author's Note: Well, the rest of the heroes will be arriving soon, and then the news will spread._

_But of course, you dear readers probably knew that tidbit of knowledge from day one, didn't you? Heh heh._

_Bit shorter for this chapter than usual, because I'm writing it after a long day of farmwork (scraping and shoveling out the muck-filled trailer is NOT a fun chore) after an even looonger week of school (Rime of the Ancient Mariner analysis + lazy groupmates = headache). But, look on the bright side: I got home after all the apparent screwballiness with this site and letting people into their accounts today, so I did not get fed up with FF and put this update off until tomorrow!_

_We'll be seeing more plot progression next chapter, I promise: but you might not like some of it... Muahahaha!_


	6. Chapter 5

Both Jaime and Julia were resisting the urge to smack all of their teammates. Not only had the pair of Guardians started off on bad terms and settled into a glaring contest, but now the Bumblebees were arguing again over options, all of which amounted to the same two: wait and see what turned up or go hunting through the weird landscape.

Ironically, only L'gonn and Le'gon seemed be perfectly at ease with each other. When Jaime had questioned them about it, the Atlanteans had grinned and explained the story of the dimension-swapped Teams several years prior, and how their current mindset sprang from it. Julia admitted aloud that thinking of their alternates as siblings-at-arms was probably the simplest way to proceed.

Not that anyone else seemed eager to follow through with that. Even easygoing Gar was having a hard getting over his suspicious staring at Gabby, who returned his exact gaze with her own expression of distaste. In fact, Jaime doubted that anything would have gotten the two groups to start cooperating...

... If it hadn't been for the sudden black tendrils that started whipping out at them from the grey mists.

Startled, the pair of Statics shot out lightning bolts, which fried the tendrils a bit but didn't deter their attacks. Both Bumblebees shrunk down and began firing their stingers, while the double Blue Beetles activated their pulse cannon. The rest of the young heroes fought off the tendrils as best they could, but it was clearly a losing battle.

"Heads up!" L'gonn yelled, before his inflated form hurled Beast Boy through the air, the kid shifting into crab mid-flight and clamping on to one of the black things. He tried cutting through it with his pincers, but Jaime watched in horror as the act only released some nasty looking gas right in his teammate's face. Morphing back to his teen form and coughing violently, Gar only had a moment to land on his feet before the same tendril smacked into his thin chest, hurling the green shapeshifter off into a cloud bank.

Concerned when his teammate didn't come running back right away, Jaime turned to go after him, only to be beaten to the punch by Beast Girl in cheetah form. When the two of them came back into sight, Gar's arm was slung around Gabby's shoulder, and no one could miss the look of alarm on the girl's face as her alternate didn't stop coughing and hacking, barely able to stay upright.

"Okay, that's it! I rescind my previous opinion! Let's get the heck out of here!" Karl yelled to the other Bumblebee, who had the presence of mind to ignore her urge to call back an 'I told you so'.

The twelve heroes hurried away from the direction the tendrils were coming from, not stopping until all signs of the frenzied black things had vanished in the mists behind them.

-DS-

Dick frowned as the sounds of fighting died away. He was glad that the whatever-it-was that continued to hold them prisoner hadn't gained anymore captives, but by the same token he didn't like the idea that the thing could so easily chase off other heroes. The young man didn't have to look around to know that his friends and their alternates were wearing the same worried expression as him.

"Think they're okay?" Supergirl asked not long after the skirmish ended. Several of the others murmured small assurances, but Artemis and Apollo, who had not spoken since the being that controlled the tendrils addressed them all, remained markedly silent. Beside Dick, Dixie tried twisting around enough to get a look at them. She made a subdued noise of confusion, prompting the male Nightwing to check behind him as well.

Both the orange and black-clad heroes were staring off in a direction completely opposite where the noises of fighting had been coming from. They wore matching looks of shock and hope.

"Pol?..." Dixie called out questioningly. The rest of the captured young adults turned to look as well, which meant that they all saw the next occurrence of the sight that had claimed Tiger and Tigress' attentions.

A very, very brief flash of orange light, inside of which a pair of letters were sketched out in the grey mists before they vanished again: KF.

-DS-

"And as soon as we got far enough away, they disappeared as quickly as they'd come." Mal finished explaining to the gathered heroes. Only a few minutes after leaving the weird black tendrils behind, the dozen Team members had stumbled out of a thick patch of mists and straight into what amounted to an army of Justice Leaguers.

Nearly every adult hero and their alternate version was there, though the handful of those still missing was weighing heavily on the backs of everyone's minds. Especially since about half of their number had run across the same black tendrils at one point or another, and been forced to retreat. No one could say for sure that the heroes who hadn't appeared yet would have willingly run from such opponents.

Aquaman and Aquawoman were trying to arrange some semblance of order amidst the growing volume of the gathered heroes, and not having much luck. Sharing a look of disgust, the pair of Blue Beetles flew up into the air and hovered side by side.

"HEY!" They shouted simultaneously. Dozens of gazes swept up to look at them in surprise, and the teen heroes floundered for a moment.

"Look," Jaime recovered first. "We're all having a not very good day here, but without a little cooperation between all of us it isn't going to get any better."

"Mi hermano es absolutely right, folks." Julia jumped in. "So, either dial down the noise and let one person talk at a time, or we may as well scatter again." At first, the pair was nervous that they were going to be dismissed out of hand, but then they realized that the wide eyes still turned upwards were not, in fact, aimed at the two of them.

"Blue Beetle is right." A deep voice projected out across the crowd. The two teens snapped their heads around, and gaped at the pair of S-symbols hovering just behind them. On the ground, several of the other missing heroes arrived, causing more than a few murmurs to ripple out across the crowd.

While the two Supers started addressing everybody, Jaime dropped down in front of Bart and grabbed the speedster in a concerned hug. "You okay there, Ese?"

"Yeah, I'm fi- well, no, not really, I mean I could be, but I might not, it kind of depends..."

"Impulse, you need to explain or the Scarab's going to insist I slap you."

Bart grinned weakly at him, mirroring his alternate's expression to a similarly displeased Julia. The two of them launched into a mini-version of their conclusion even as the pair of adult Flashes explained to the crowd at large.

Everyone seemed to have a different reaction to the news: some were overjoyed at the prospect of the red haired speedsters still being alive, while others focused more on the knowledge that there was something darker responsible for taking some of their teammates.

And then Wonder Boy spoke up. "So... Where are Robyn, Batlad and Batwoman?"

-DS-

"Hyaa!" Robin sent another birdarang flying through the tendrils trying to attack him. All six of the Gotham heroes were racing about, launching their weapons and avoiding being caught by the mysterious vines or breathing the gas that was released when they were punctured.

"Does this remind anyone else of fighting Poison Ivy?" His counterpart Robyn called out, ducking her own attackers.

"It hadn't, but thank you for pointing out that pleasant comparison." Batgirl grumbled. She took a running leap, flipped over a tendril aiming for her heart, and went straight through the mist bank it had emerged from.

What was waiting on the other side nearly shocked her into freezing stock still.

_A/N: I'm so sorry folks, I feel like I haven't updated this in (/checks calendar), oh, lookey there, a couple weeks._

_/Hides face in shame_

_I'm afraid school's been throwing some curveballs at me, along with college application season and a enough crappy weather I've had to dedicate my weekends to getting some better shelters up at my mom's farm... I hate my life so much right now..._

_The good news is I've cobbled together enough of a groove today to finish throwing this chapter together and deliver it. The bad news is, well, I'm not sure when the next time I'll have available for a serious writing session will be. I'll try to get this story wrapped up over the next couple weekends, but we're still going to be touch-and-go until Spring arrives and I get a little time off._

_-Triscribe_


	7. Chapter 6

_What was waiting on the other side nearly shocked her into freezing stock still._

Nearly.

Three more tendrils whipping out at her from the massive black and purple blob forced Batgirl into defensive measures. She nimbly jumped upwards, spinning around and lashing her feet out at the incoming projectiles. Two of the tendrils were kicked away while the third served as her launch pad for getting back to the rest of the Bats.

"We don't want to go that way, trust me." The hero called out as she moved back into visual range of the others. "There's a gelatinous thing half the size of the Watchtower that these tendrils are coming out of. I get the feeling it's just trying to shoo us away."

"And we're supposed to do what it wants?" Robin yelped as he swerved to avoid a vine that suddenly changed direction on him.

"Until we know what it is or what it wants, yes." Batman said sternly. And with that, the six of them back-tracked away from the tendrils and the blob.

They didn't get very far, though, before a call halted all of the Bats in their tracks.

"_Batman!"_ All six pairs of eyes jerked upwards and widened at the site of several heroes suspended midair by the same black tendrils.

"Nightwing?!" The younger four Gotham heroes all yelped upon seeing their respective elder Teammate trapped overhead.

"Behind you-!" Dixie was cut off with a gasp as the tendrils wrapped around her suddenly tightened, squeezing out all the air from her lungs. The others were similarly restrained before they could so much as open their mouths.

Batman ducked, grabbing Robyn's cape and pulling her down as well to avoid the sharply pointed tendrils that would have speared through them otherwise. He was glad to see Batwoman do the same for his partner, while the other two dropped to the ground on their own. The grown hero pulled out another razor edged batarang, launching it at the bindings that held his oldest protege captive - only for it to be snatched out of the air, the black substance that made up the tendrils completely absorbing the projectile.

**ENOUGH.**

A deep rumbling started to make the grey mists around them shiver and churn, even as more tendrils appeared out of them and circled around the suspended heroes, several of whom were having difficulty breathing by this point. Then, the lot of them began to shift further into the greyness.

"No!" Batwoman yelled angrily, seeing both Nightwings and the others being taken out of sight. She too pulled out another batarang, an explosive one, but instead of throwing it at the tendrils themselves she sent the projectile through the mists, in the direction where Batgirl had seen the massive being that controlled the foul tendrils. Moments later, they could see the shockwave of the explosion ripple through the mists, and all of the tendrils paused where they were.

Then, everything went wrong.

-DS-

Faintly, very faintly, Superman felt the ripple of an explosive shockwave. His eyebrows went up in surprise, and an exchanged glance with Superwoman proved she had felt it too. A few of the more air pressure sensitive heroes were also turning to look with confused expressions on their faces.

"I think we just got a lead on our missing Bats." Superwoman murmured. Several Leaguers glanced up at her words, and noticed those among their number who were all staring in the same direction.

"What is it?" Black Canary asked, slowly shifting her feet into something resembling a fighting stance. The Kryptonian briefly explained about the ripple through the air, and by then the four speedsters were heading towards where it had emanated from.

They didn't get that far.

Just as Barry reached the edge of a veritable mist wall, a massive intertwined web of the black tendrils came boiling out of it, forcing the speedsters to backtrack. And being hurled outwards from it were six black-caped figures, each struggling to land in something other than a painful sprawl.

Eyes widening as he saw the potentially fatal trajectory Batgirl was taking, Superman flew up in a red and blue blur, gently catching the young woman as she twisted midair. Batlad was similarly caught by Superwoman, as well as Robyn and Robin by their respective Amazonian significant other. All had relieved grins on their faces, once the shock of their sudden journeys wore off.

The elder Bats, though, retained the dire scowls, even as Wonder Woman and Wonder Man brought them to the ground.

"Are you alright?" Diana asked, concerned even as she concluded that the hero she set down had no immediately obvious injuries.

"Fine - now move! We need to get back there!"

"Whoa, Bats, easy there. What the heck happened?" Green Arrow asked, several other League and Team members asking the same thing. "And we've kinda been staying away from those vines, y'know."

"I'm sure." Growled Batwoman, getting to her own feet as well. "But that's not helping Nightwing or any of the others!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Whatever these tendrils are, and the monster-sized blob that's controlling them, they're holding the members of the original Team prisoner! We've got to save them!" Robyn projected her voice for everyone to hear. "They've been moved from where we saw them last, but if we go where the tendrils are trying to keep us away from, we're bound to find them!"

Her words were taken to heart, but sadly, not just by the gathered heroes.

Black tendrils snaked out of the mists towards them, and from all directions. Within seconds, it was mass chaos as the superheroes attempted to clear some room around them, to no avail. There were just too many attackers.

Rocket blasted through a trio of tendrils that were attempting to hold down his mentor, and Icon returned the favor not a moment later. The Atlanteans, without a ready source of water, were hard pressed to fight with their fists and feet, requiring aid several times from those with longer range weapons. Twin Canary cries resounded through the battleground, tearing partially through the bunches of tendrils, only for the black things to reform once the soundwaves ceased. The four archers kept close together, pointing out targets to each other in an effort to conserve their arrows, while the pair of cat-masked Cheshires leaped about to keep them relatively clear. Even the Kryptonians and speedsters, moving at their fastest, were barely able to keep a balance between the incoming tendrils and the rapidly tiring heroes.

And then, within the blink of an eye, it was over.

A pair of crimson and gold bands appeared, spinning around the League and Team members, sparks of energy flashing as the tendrils were cut off from their source. Instantly, they dropped to the ground and shriveled up, looking for all the world like harmless weeds.

Getting is rapid breathing under control, Barry slid to a halt just as the bands of color came together to form a pair of slender figures, still crackling with absorbed energy of the Speed Force.

The air from his last exhale caught in Flash's throat, and when he finally breathed it out, a single word escaped as well. "_Wally..._"


End file.
